Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-06-17

| is alleged to exist to-day in consequence
| of the men who were made voters by the
| fifteenth Amendments that the representa-
tives Of the people propose to take from
| the national treasury for the purpose oil
education upon political reasons alone
$U,O00,000. | believe | will trouble you
| with the full statistics as we are discuss
ing this subject. Recolleci, | am now
giving my reasons for having cast my
| vote against the sixteenth amendment, for
which | was held up in certain counties,
in Mesopotami, and in all the counties
beyond Jordan, and even in the beautiful
little village hard by, Damascus, and in
| the wilds of AbySsinia as well, As having
deserted my constituents and unworthy Of
the confidence reposed in me. Bulletins
were issued and quite an excitement was
| created, and certain papers in bold head
| lines said "Ingalls must GO" And why =
Because had the hardihOod to cast my
vote against the sixteenth proposed amend
| ment to the constitution of the United
States, thereby discriminating in the cleo
| tOral privilege on account of sex, and for
| this l was scourged with stripes and beat
en- and declared to be unworthy of public
| confidence.
The sixteenth amendment if adopted
would have added of this dangerous ele
| ment according to the census of 1880, that
constitutes in the southern states SO large
| a proportion of the population, of white
men above the age of 21 years unable to
| read the ballot they were TO be given with
| $50 $3.50, or over seven per cent. of the en-
tire white voting population, and the
white females, above the age of twenty
one years, who were unable TO read and
| write, and therefore come within this ILL
terate class, !, ,169, ,S04. OF colored males
above the age of twenty one years, confin-
ed to the states, | have mentioned, there
were l ,022, Isl or over sixty per cent. of
the entire population. Now, of the color
ed females, by the same census, who
would have been added to the voting pop
ulatlon of the United States that were of
this dangerous, illteratc, and ignorant
class, for which this SIT 100000 was re-
quired to be expended, there would he |,
I25, 749, or over seventy-sevcn per cent of
the entire eligible population, that is if
this amendment had been adopted there
would have been added to the already ex.
listing illiterate, ignorant and dangerous
element of this country that many voters
principally in the southern states, where
the male colored vote has already been
suppressed. With such dangers TO the
northern vote and 10 the righttul suprema-
cy in legislation and politics, what would
it be if there were added two millions
more illIterate colored women?
Now, | have nothing whatever 10 say
about the question of colOred voters. !
am simply dealing with this proposition
as pnblc servant charged with certain
functions for which l am accountable to
you, and not to the people Of any other
state, but before this controversy is over
| intend to settle this question between
myself and my constituents ut home and
not elsewhere, and believe that shall be
able to satisfy them that upon rational
grounds affecting the public welfare, it
was not only my duty TO my country i'm
peratively required that should cast my
vote against that amendment, and / be-
lieve that when the people of this coun-
try understand it they will appreciate this
fact, and that is that congress has nothin:
whatever 20 do with suffrage. There is
mistaken idea on this whole subject,
and that is that it requires some amend
ment to the constitution to allow women
to vote. l deny this. 1t is a matter en-
tirely within the control of the several
states to say to whom they will grant the
vi sdhia Who Sudil NO'C iOi Iucill-
bers Of congress and for members of the
electoral college.
For the reasons have stated and the ef-
feet of the sixteenth amendment if adopt
ed upon the states mentioned it is my
impression that fair unbiased statement
of the reasons that induced any member
of the pati )nal congress Of whatever poll
tical faith to vote against the sixteenth
amendment was sound, wise just and pru.
dent have seen it announced in some
newspapers that it was my purpose and
intention to antagoniZe the issue of female
suffrage here, and to drive it from the
state. 1t would be supertluous for me to
state that nothing could be farther from
my intentions. 1t was entirely originated
in the too fertile Imagination of some
newspaper reporter. have no such idea
or purpose. l know the mementum, l
know the increasing power of any of these
great movements for the amelioration of
the condition of the human race, and for
the enlargement of the boundaries of hu.
man liberty, and know that equal suf-
rage will eventually be conferred upon
the women of Kansas. These great move
ments cannot be retarded. The wise man
will seek to direct them, the demagogue
iit oSNh " PiOht ny hChl, anu tio lOOl
will sometimes endeavOr to stop them. |
make small pretensions to statemanship.
l am sometimes not quite sure whether |
am demagoguc or not, but | am quite
sure that am not fool, and shall not
like Don Quixote, with my Squire Sancho
Panza, grid myself to attack the windmill
of female suffrage.
have heard great many women re-
gret that they were not men. but | have
never heard man wish that he was a
woman. or regret that he had not been
born woman. l do not state this with
anything but reverence, although the
statement makes you smile, because, not
withstanding all our search and all our
wisdom, sex must forever remain one of
fha great insnlnhls and mysterious prob
lens of human destiny, and the statement
that l made shows the inexplicable i'm.
munity, the astonishing escape that man
has made in this great problem from the
burdens and weaknesses and infrmities of
woman, which to every noble and gener-
GUS and manly soul are the source of her
greatest strength, her guard, her ornament
| and her protection. Another difficulty
| about discussing the question of woman
| suffrage Is that its advocates refuse to rec
OgniZc the radical inherent difference be-
tween man and woman. They insist that
| woman shall be treated in this problem
only as weaker and smaller man. A
good woman is better than the best man !;
bad woman is worse than the worst
man; but the fact of the sex remains and
fixes the relations of the parties. 1t is
| idle TO attempt to ignore it, and the diff
Guilty OF the situation is that the argument
leaves Oft where il ought to begin; and the
great difficulty under which those who
are opposed to female suffrage, who he-
lieve it will be calamity, that it would
make women masculine and men femi.
nine is that no man upon the platform,
dares to say what is in his mind, and what
is in the mind Of every man and every
woman in the audience who hears him
The conditions OF determining the rela-
tlon OF woman to society, are such that no
man can speak of them without Oftense,
and that is why argument is impossible.
This is why il is that when the advocates
of this idea, of this theory, insist that we
shall ignore the question of sex and treat
every woman as though she were merely
one OF the inferior capacity to ourselves is
fallscious and hopeless. 1t is not ques
ton of intelligence at all. 1t is ques
tion of morals We all know that there
are thousands and millions Of women com
petent to vote. know hundreds anc